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Friday, April 4, 2014

A Special Request

Some time ago my Aunt asked me to fix a quilt my Mom had made for her many years ago. I had been dreading it a bit...partly because it was a quilt my Mom had made in love and the thought of it being me working on it reminds me that my Mom is no longer with me and partly because I was just procrastinating on figuring out the best way to go about taking the block that needed repairs apart!

My Mom made quilts for each of her sisters. This I believe was the first 'sister' quilt and it was made just a couple years after she began quilting. It was completed in 1997. The background fabric was a woven tea towel by the looks of it. It certainly had character but didn't stand up to the love this quilt has seen.

I carefully removed the quilting stitches from around the appliques and the stitching from the appliques, basting the edges as I went to stabilize them as much as I could. Then I cut the background off carefully right at the seam line.

There were sections I couldn't get the stitching out of so I just cut away the background as well as I could.

My plan was to applique a new background piece just on the original seam lines and then reapply the appliques.

Here it is pinned and ready to finish!

After sewing all the appliques in place I added some quilting stitches and I was done...at least that part.

The quilt also had a house block that had some yo-yo flowers. They had become...interesting!

I steamed them a bit and flattened them a bit and just tacked them down along the edges.